"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."

No one knows for sure the history of cremation but cremation is a custom as old as the earliest recorded history. Scholars generally agree that cremations probably began, in any measurable number, during the early Stone Age or around 3000 B.C. It is believed to have started in Europe and the Near East. There is some evidence that cremation existed in North America as much as 10,000 years ago with certain Native American Tribes.

Cremation began to move into the British Isles and what is now Spain and Portugal during the Bronze Age (2500 to 1000 B.C.) Cemeteries began to be developed for cremated remains.

By the time of the Roman Empire (27 B.C. to 395 A.D.) cremations were widely practiced and the cremated remains were generally stored in elaborate urns in columbarium-like buildings.

But then Christ was born - "crucified, dead and buried..." "Christ was buried so I must be buried" became the accepted way of thinking, and as a result, Early Christians began to consider the act of cremation to be pagan and in-ground burial of the body became the norm. Even then, Jewish culture preferred traditional sepulcher entombment.

In the very early days of Christianity and after many Christians had been martyred under Roman law, their bodies were cremated and the remains widely scattered. In this way the Romans could and did believe there was no way that the Christian God could resurrect the body and soul of the Martyrs as taught by the Disciples.

By 400 A.D., and mainly as a result of Roman Emperor Constantine's Christianization of the Empire, traditional (by then) earth burial had almost completely replaced cremation and for the next 1,500 years remained the accepted mode of body disposition.

Modern cremation, as we know it today, began in Europe with the perfecting of a crematory in 1873. But only three years later, in Washington, Pennsylvania, another crematory was built and it was the first one in the United States. A very few more years went by and a second was opened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and as was true of many of the early crematories, it was owned by a cremation society. The word "society" implies that the members are "like-minded" and many of the early members were medical professionals concerned with health conditions around early cemeteries.

Even 100 years ago many of the reasons for choosing cremation, that people today cite, were also being used, e.g., environmental considerations were becoming somewhat important, regional differences were diminishing and religious restrictions were changing somewhat.

Crematories soon sprang up in many of the larger U.S. cities and by 1900 there were at least 20 in operation that would perform about 2,400 cremations or about 1% of all deaths. Within another few years, 10,000 cremations were taking place annually. It took 100 years but by 1975 there were 425 crematories and nearly 125,000 cremations.

Today there are at least 2,000 crematories within the United States and Canada and they will approach a number of 1 million cremations. We've talked a lot about numbers of cremations but how do these numbers compare to overall deaths? What about the percentages?

There is a large difference in cremation percentages between several countries. As an example the cremation percentage for Japan is at 99%. There is also a significant difference in some of the American states. The latest data available reflects that Nevada and Hawaii cremated just slightly over 67% of their deaths. In addition, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Alaska, Montana, Colorado, Rhode Island and California all reported cremating over 50% of their deaths. Conversely, the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee report less than 10% of their deaths result in cremation.

Some reports indicate that with the passing of another 15 years, our country will see half of the deaths resulting in cremation. In addition to the reasons cited above and appearing a century ago there are other trends affecting cremation. People are dying much older and choosing cremation for themselves. Ties to the old tradition of ground burial are becoming weaker. And a big factor that 30% of those surveyed cited was the monetary saving.

I'm sure the trend toward cremation will continue. The big question is what will the history and figures look like in another 100 years?

Author's information:

J. WAYNE CAMPBELL came to the funeral industry in 2003 after a highly successful career as a full-time National Guardsman, retiring as a full-Colonel. Mr. Campbell is a Stephen Minister, a Presbyterian Deacon and Elder and a Family Support Volunteer for Hospice of Wake County. For more information on cremation and related processes, please visit us at www.cremation.com